


/^? 



V^ ADDRESS 



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THE AMERICAN SOCIETY 



FOR 



THE ENCOURAG»EMENT 



OP 



DOMESTIC MANUFACTURES, 



TO THE PEOPLE 



OF 



THE UNITED STATES. 



J^EW.YORKs 

Van Winkle, Wiley b Co., Prinlers. 

1817. 



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At a Meeting of the American Society for the Encou" 
ragement of Domestic Manufactures^ held in the 
City of JYew-York^ on the 3 1st day of December^ 
1816. Present — 

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, Governor of the State of New- 

York, President. 
STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER, ¥irst Vice-President. 
WILLIAM FEW, Second Vice-President. 
JOHN FERGUSON Third Vice-President. 
DOMINICK LYNCH, jun. 



PETER H. SCHENCK. ^ Secretaries. 



Thomas Morris, Chairman of the Committee of Correspon- 
dence, reported the following address, prepared by the said 
Committee, in pursuance of a resolution of this society, passed 
at their last meeting. 



ADDRESS, &c. 



The Committee charged to report an Address to the pub- 
lic, from the Society for the encouragement of Domestic 
Manufactures, have cheerfully complied ; for if there be 
any interest dear to the patriot's heart, and precious in the 
eyes of humanity, it is that of a nation's industry, advan- 
cing hand in hand with her civilization, glory, and indepen- 
dence. National industry is ihe true source of imperishable 
riches, the means of pure enjoyment, the support of good 
morals, the natural ally of social prosperity and individual 
happiness. In its effects, and in its causes, it is identitied 
with the advancement of the sciences and the progress of 
the human mind. 

In speaking of what so vitally concerns the destiny of 
this nation, we h^ve raised our minds to sources of high 
and holy inspiration. We have read in the great volume 
of nature ihe sublimity of our subject ; we have looked to 
the vastness of our territory for the measure of our views ; 
to the variety of its climates for the sum of our enjoyments ; 
to its majestic conformation for the type of its grandeur ; to 
its young annals for records of virtue and example; to its 



freedom for the guarantee of every hope, and to the Almighty 
for ihe continuance of its happiness ; and with contempla- 
tion suited to such subjects, we have entered on our task. 

Twenty years of desolation amongst the nations of Eu- 
rope had given us a factitious prosperity. Wars for liberty, 
conspiracies against it, abuses of freedom, re-actions of 
despotism, had given to our neutral flag, amidst a warring 
world, advantages nearly paid for by the sacrifice of mde- 
pendence, against which the world's treasures should not 
weigh a feather. The proudest work of the Creator was 
almost marred, till an auspicious Providence spoke to the 
people's hearts, and taught their rulers wisdom. It was then 
that a new and higher spirit arose ; that genius, and 
talent, and virtue, and unmatched heroism, and generous 
devotion, and all that was American, started into action ; 
and the nation, like the elder Brutus, put off the slough of 
imbecility. The revolutionary hero leaped from his grave, 
and the spirit of the Redeemer entered the temple and over- 
turned the tables of the money-changers. The scourge 
of war, like the thunder's gust, restored the springs of health 
and animation. The rains descended, and the floods came, 
and the winds blew and beat upon the house, and it fell 
not, for it was founded on a rock. 

But let us not be lulled into a dangerous security : the 
war is not yet over ; the work is not yet done. We are 
now assailed from a more dangerous quarter, and reeling 
under the blows that shower upon us from an ambushed 
enemy. Courage could defend us in war, wisdom alone 
can save us now. But we do not despair ; the sympa- 
thy that has been kindled at the first annunciation of this 
institution, the well-pronounced expression, from various 
quarters of the public feelings, tells us we are the organs 
of a free people's will, and acting by its mandate. Intuition 
warns us of our dutv, and assures us, that when we treat 



of the vital interest of America, and speak the words of 
truth, we should utter them with decision. 

This country stands distinguished on the earth. In 
vain should we look to other histories for maxims of light ; 
there are none that bear comparison ; and analogies are bar- 
ren of instruction, when there is no parity in the objects to 
be compared. The fictions and fables of antiquity are 
realized in the short annals of our country. Like the young 
Hercules, it strangled in its cradle the destroying serpents, 
and would prove equal to every labour. But foreign 
manufactures, like the garment poisoned by the Hydra's 
blood, threatens our dissolution ; our funeral pile is lighted ; 
but a mighty hand will interpose, and rescue us from death 
to immortality. And if it be asked who has that power ? 
we say it is The People ! Yes ! In vain should our legislature 
ordain quarantine to those who come from foreign regions, 
before they print their steps upon our shores ; in vain forbid 
the entry of infected goods within our wholesome precincts, 
unless they guard against those importations which poison 
by contagion ; whose baleful infection is, not for a season, 
but perennial. 

Some minds, deserving of a better direction, have, from 
long habit of a particular mode of dealing, associated the 
idea of commerce with that of a ship from abroad, loaded 
with stuffs of foreign manufacture. And they cannot see 
how another branch of industry can bear any competition. 
Yet a little attention to the progress of man's civilization 
will show, that without reference to national advantage, to 
be a manufacturer is a law of man's nature ; witness his 
attitude, his structure, those limbs which are not destined 
to support his body, but supple, flexible with motion and 
articulation, suited to every operation that the will of the 
most improved intelligence can exact. And if he cannot 
assure his own preservation, nor procure food, raiment, or 
habitation, without manufacturing implements for defence, 



8 

^r for the chase ; nor fell a tree in the forest, or turn a fur- 
row in the field, till he has manufactured the plough and 
the axe, then we may say with Franklin, whose wisdom 
spoke in smiles — in any one of whose sallies there is con- 
centrated more profound thought than in volumes of com- 
mon place, *'• That man is a tool-making animal,'' or, in 
words less lively or emphatic, that he is by nature a ma- 
nufacturer. 

But we cannot help regretting, that not only the objects 
of our commerce, but our moral and political opinions, 
have been too long of foreign manufacture. And we think 
they treat us unfairly ; for the opinions they force upon 
our credulity are such as they never use themselves. They 
are manufactured for exportation, not for home consump- 
tion. If we adopt them they will profit willingly, but, in 
return, smile at our credulity. 

In a word, all the arguments used by the partisans of 
foreign manufactures, are resolved into one point, Shall 
we manufacture for ourselves, or shall Britain manufacture 
for us ? This is the question ; and now, having stated it 
fairly, we shall meet it boldly, and argue it candidly. 

On the part of the adversary, the following objections 
are relied upon as insurmountable : 

1. That this ought to be a commercial and agricultural, 
and not a manufacturing country. 

2. That manufactures are unfriendly to commerce and 
agriculture. 

3. That they cannot be carried on to advantage, be- 
cause labour is higher than in Europe. 

4. That they demoralize and deprave those employed 
in them. 

5. That they should be left to themselves, and not forced 
into premature existence by government patronage. 

6. That such patronage would diminish the revenue and 
resources of government. 



True to her interest, when Great Britain cannot force a 
market by the bayonet, she does it by circumvention. It 
was this policy, exercised towards these states whilst colo- 
nies, that, with other aggressions, led to resistance. It was 
the continuance of this policy, and the influence of her 
manufactures, that lately went near to prostrate our govern- 
ment, sever our union, and overturn our independence. 
And this policy, as long as it is fed with any hope of our 
ruin, will leave no means untried to injure us. Such is 
the policy that carries despotism round the globe ; that 
whispers in our ears, and would instil into our hearts, per- 
nicious counsels. 

And now to our argument : 

1st. That this ought to be a commercial and agricultu- 
ral country. 

If this position were not the entering wedge for other 
sophistries, we should have nothing to do but to agree : 
but when they go the length of saying, " Givfe up manufac- 
turing that you may be commercial and agricultural," we 
say, no ! but we will manufacture, that we may be agricul^ 
tural and commercial. And we tell them, read your histo- 
ry, and see how England^s commerce has depended on, and 
grown out of, her manufactures. 

If England's commerce has depended upon her manufac- 
tures, and without any agricultural resources she has ri- 
sen to wealth, we may well say, having a resource the 
more in the abundance of our soil, ** Do you give up all 
competition, let us manufacture for you.'' Great Britain 
would surely think this an arrogant pretension, and she 
would think rightly. Why, then, presume that we should 
be her dupe ? 

Does any one seek to be convinced, by a single 
fact, that the settlement of the lands, and the pros- 
perity of the country, depend, essentially, upon manufactu- 
ring establishments, let him go to the western part of 
this state, the rapid growth of which is without a parallel 

2 



10 

in the history of nations, and he will find that mills and 
manufactures formed the first rudiments of those almost 
countless villages and towns which spangle that fertile and 
beautiful country, emphatically styled, the Eden of the state. 

2d. That our manufactures are noxious to our commerce 
and agriculture. 

This is little else than so many empty words. How 
can that which widens the field of commerce be said 
to injure it ? Will these logicians assert that British ma- 
nufactures have injured British commerce ? No ; but they 
speak with two tongues ; one for themselves, and one 
for us. We have three resources ; they have but two : 
abandon one, they say, that we may be equal. When did 
they set us the example of such complaisance ? And as to 
any pretended injury to agriculture, by the absorption of la- 
bour, we find that out of 200,000 persons formerly employ- 
ed in our factories, in two branches alone, more than 
120,000 were women and children. Was agriculture be- 
nefited when, on the stopping of the cotton and woollen 
manufactures, these women returned to idleness, the children 
to the poor house, and the men, not to the farms, but to the 
cities from whence they came ? 

3d. That manufactures cannot be carried on here to ad- 
vantage whilst labour is so much higher than in England. 

This may be plausible to those who are as ignorant of 
that country as its partisans are, or affect to be, of this. 
Our labour is, indeed, numerically higher; but taxes and 
impositions are so much lower, that we can aflbrd to pay 
more, because our goods are charged with little else. It is 
true that in England the labourer receives less, because 
what he earns by his industry is paid away, before it 
reaches his hands, in tithes, pensions, taxes, poor-rates, and 
a thousand exactions to pamper the pride and luxury 
of those who live but to consume the fruits of the earth — 
who neither work, nor add to the stock of national wealth. 

But it proves nothing for the lowncss of wages, that this 



11 

poor man's substance is eaten up by so many that had no 
share in earning it. And there is another answer worth 
attention : If our fabrics are upheld for a time, a power 
will develop itself which will sink this formidable objec- 
tion into nothing ; that of labour-saving machinery ; a 
power of which no man can at present foresee the limit or 
extent ; a power indigenous in this country, where men, by 
the free exercise of their will and faculties, have acquired 
a characteristic aptitude for mechanical inventions. Many 
instances prove this position, so honourable to our coun- 
try. 

And what field of competition is so desirable as that 
which calls into activity the finest powers and greatest 
energies of useful intellect ; the powers that will make us 
strong in war, secure in peace, respected abroad, happy 
at home. But there is another motive, still nearer at hand : 
these manufactures give bread to many whom years, in- 
firmities, or sex, disqualify from labours of a ruder cast, 
and make them rather a source of wealth to the communi- 
ty than an incumbrance. And so little does the depres* 
sion of our manufactures depend upon scarcity of hands, 
that many are carried on by apprentices without wages. 
And since the peace, many persons have been obliged to 
return from them to the poor houses, and be again con- 
signed to pauperism. 

What we have said of machinery will be of more weight, 
when it is considered what abundance of mill-sites are to 
be had in this country, of which the fee-simple, and all 
other charges, would not cost the annual expense of a steam 
engine ; and though in England wages are higher than 
on the continent of Europe, yet that has not prevented her 
from underselling all her rivals, except such as have lately 
adopted the counteracting policy we would recommend. 

It is worthy also of notice, that all these labour-saving 
machines, and mechanical improvements; which would be 



12 

hailed by us as new planets in the firmament, are, in that 
country, the signals of mobs, assassinations, and revolt ; 
and are, in fact, at last established by the sole protection of 
the strong arm of government. 

We refer on this head to Mr. Tench Coxe's " Statement 
of the Arts and Manufactures of the United States," who 
asserts that the dimmution of manual labour in 1808 was 
estimated in England, in regard to the cotton business, at 
200 to 1. And who observes further, that Mr. John Dun- 
can, of Glasgow, an able writer and artist, considers it to be 
much more. In the same work Mr. Coxe instances the 
saw-gin, invented by Mr. Ely Whitney of Connecticut, as 
saving manual labour in the proportion of 1000 to 1. If it 
were consistent with our limits, or our present object, we 
could quote abundance ol valuable matter from this authen- 
tic and useful work, We can only here recommend it to 
the perusal of all who take interest in their country's welfare. 

4th. That manufactures degrade and demoralize. 

We are inclined to believe that in the British factories are 
fuund disgusting exhibitions of human depravity and wretch- 
edness. But we cannot believe that the exercise of indus- 
try cQuld ever be the cause of demoralizing any race of 
men ; although unequal laws and bad examples may have 
that tendency. In this country there are extensive manu- 
factories, and yet no such consequences are observed. 

The best account we have of the pollution of British 
manufactures is in a work entitled " Espriella's Letters,'' 
To judge from that work, British manufactories are objects 
pf abhorrence. But, for the honour of humanity, we must 
suppose that picture something over-coloured. 

Surely, we haye not witnessed in our fabrics any of those 
fearful apparitions, flitting through the smoke of their dis- 
pnal repairs, Hke the spirits of the damned, squalid and 
pallid, with green hair, red eyes, distorted members, 
and ghastly aspect. But whoever has travelled through the 
towns and cities of the Brtish Isles, during the last twenty- 



13 

five years of war, must know that it is not alone in manu- 
facturing districts, or manufacturing countries, that beggary 
and wretchedness are to be found. Whoever would describe 
depravity and immorality, may visit barracks, camps, 
and men-of-war; and, moreover, those nations which are not 
manufacturing will be found most to abound in profli- 
gacy and disorder. In those countries that enjoy the 
benefit of manufactures, their wholesome effect upon the mo- 
rals of the people is too often defeated by the immoderate 
use of spirituous liquors, which, and not manufactories, are 
the most prolific source of poverty and immorality. 
Experience has shown that the persons employed in 
manufactories are as sober as any of the working class. 
A reason for which may be, that the employers have better 
means of watching over their conduct, and controlling their 
disorders ; or, where that cannot be effected, discharging 
those whose bad example might corrupt the rest. 

And it appears, from the authentic treatise of Mr. Col^ 
quhoun, that before the present unparalleled state of distress 
in England, there were only seven paupers to every hun- 
dred inhabitants in the manufacturing districts, and in others, 
not manufacturing, there were twenty- one. 

Was it manufactures that humbled Spain, whose power 
and pride stood once as high as England's ? What manu- 
factures strew the streets of Naples with idle Lazaroni? 
What manufactures debase Portugal ? Is it the manufac- 
turing of tooth-picks at the university of Coimbra ? or is it 
the stripping off the bark from the cork tree in the forest, 
to be carried to England, cut, and sent back to bottle their 
wine ? Is it the encouragement of domestic manufactures 
that has degraded the children of Erin ? or is it that every 
demoniac effort has been used, to depress its industry, stifle 
its genius, and trample down its virtues ? 

And why is Canada so different from the United Slates, 
although untaxed ? Because, even the timber of their woods 



14 

is sent to be made into ships, and returned, ready framed, 
to be launched on the lakes for their defence. 

But at length, though late, the continental nations have 
taken the alarm, and combinations are formed, by both 
sexes, against the importation of these manufactures ! 
Shall we be less quicksighted ? If, in v/ar, they could not 
overcome us, shall they in peace destroy us ? If they feel 
now the effects of their ambition, they cannot complain: 
" They are the general challengers. We come but as 
others do, to try with them the strength of our youth." 

We have, besides, none of those great manufacturing 
cities ; nor do we wish for such. Our fabrics will not 
require to be situated near mines of coal, to be worked by 
fire or steam, but rather on chosen sites, by the fall of wa- 
ters and the running stream, the seats of health and cheer- 
fulness, where good instruction will secure the morals of 
the young, and good regulations will promote, in all, order, 
cleanliness, and the exercise of the civil duties. This, 
with the beneficial clauses usual in our indentures of 
apprenticeship, and the vigilant eye of the magistrate to 
enforce them, will obviate every apprehension. And we 
hazard nothing by the assertion, that some of the best edu- 
cated of the poorer class, in tliis country, are those brought 
up in factories, and such as would otherwise have been 
destitute of education altogether ; and those whose tender- 
ness inclines them to make this objection are requested to 
reflect, that the paternal regard of the legislature is awake 
to this subject ; and that, to every institution of this kind 
a school will be appendant. Then, if it please heaven to 
redeem the thousands, and tens of thousands, that groan in 
the land of bondage^ and open them a passage through the 
waves, as to the Israelites of old, this shall be their land of 
promise. Here shall their industry find its reward ; and if 
they fear sickness or decrepitude in our factories, there is 
no authority, power, or necessity, that can confine them for 



15 

a day. They may shape their course to any part of a 
territory as expansive as the ocean they have traversed, 
find a thousand ways to bestow their industry to their ad- 
vantage, with land, free and unoccupied, on which to settle ; 
and under no circumstances need they fear the dreadful 
calamity of famine, from which they fled. 

5th. That manufactures should be left to their natural 
growth. 

To the friends of America, it will be argument enough 
that domestic manufactures are for the permanent interest 
of their country, and the only sure means of our independ- 
ence. What would not wisdom and patriotism do to se- 
cure such objects ? 

We ask not one-third of the protection which Britain 
has bestowed upon her manufactures. We ask not more 
protection than our commerce has received by discrimi- 
nating duties and navigation laws ; and what we do ask, is 
but until our tender grizzle shall be hardened, and our 
joints knit. But under what protection British manufac- 
tures grew, and still maintain themselves, we shall now 
show ; and then, in our turn, ask these advisers, why ours 
should be left to themselves rather than their own. 

Coeval with the first dawn of English prosperity, we 
find in the British code laws for the protection of British 
manufactures. One of their ancient kings, the third Ed- 
ward, is magnified in their history for his wise foresight in 
enacting these statutes, to which their increasing greatness 
is ascribed. To those acts is referred the consequence 
to which that litde island has since attained ; the bursting 
of the feudal chains ; the growth of art and science ; and 
that power, of which the abuse has at length recoiled upon 
the head of pride and usurpation. 

We do not ask for such laws as the British code exhi- 
bits. We would not sacrifice to a golden idol the rights or 
feelings of humanity. We would not chain to the ground 



16 

the harmless artificer ; nor under accumulated penalties 
restrain his natural rights. Yet such are Britith statutes. 
The oppressor may trample on him ; famine stare him in 
the face ; his children cry for bread, when he has none to 
give them ; be his disgust or his enterprise what it may, 
he " must abide the pelting of the storm ;" his nativeland is 
his dungeon, and his industry his crime. If a master of an 
American vessel offer to transport him to a country where 
his heart's hopes are centred, he, too, is condemned, as 
"a seducer of artisans,'^'' to like ruinous inflictions, and 
punished for his charitable ministry. The exporter of a 
tool or implement used in any art, or the master who re- 
ceives it in his ship, is subject to similar pains and for- 
feitures. 

Nor is this, like the feudal laws, or monastic institutions, 
an obsolete system ; many of these statutes are of modern 
date, and some of the time of the reigning monarch.* We wish 
for nothing that can affect the personal right of any individu- 
al, citizen, alien, native, or foreigner ; we claim only for our 
country the honourable protection of its very dearest inte- 
rests. But, we think this argument may show how far Great 
Britain is from doing that herself which her emissaries 
never fail to preach to us — that is, letting her manufactures 
take care of themselves. Nor is it the king, nor his cabi- 
net, nor his parliament, to whom this policy is to be as- 
cribed. It is the public voice. So dearly do Englishmen 
prize that interest they would have us forego. 

We would here notice two branches of domestic manu- 
factures, the shoe and hat manufactures, which have, by the 
means of the protection of government, prospered to that 
degree that they, at this day, rendor us independent of 
foreign supply. But facts are so abundant that the de- 
tails would lead to interminable length. 

• Geo. I.e. 27. Geo. III. c. 13. Geo. III. c. 71. Geo. III. c. 37. Geo 
HI. c. 60. 



17 

We find a member of parliament, the celebrated Mr. 
Brougham, who brought about the repeal of the orders in 
council, by showing the effects of our non-importation law^ 
upon their manufactures, this energetic denouncer of the 
abuses of power, versed in the subject, and speaking for 
popularity, in arraigning as madness the excessive exporta- 
tions to the continent of Europe, admits, nevertheless, *' that 
it is well worth while to incur a loss on the first exportar 
tion, in order, by the glut, to stifle in the cradle those rising 
manufactures in the United States, which the war had forced 
into premature existence, contrary," as he is pleased to 
assert, " to the natural course of things." And a celebrated 
writer on the colonial policy of Great Britain, whose words 
are considered next to oificial, in a chapter on the relative 
situation of Great Britain and America, as manufacturing 
rivals, speaks thus : " This is the era (he says) of a syste- 
matic contest which must, eventually, endanger the safety 
of the manufactures of the one or the other." Now, though 
this is not a war of arms, yet it is a war more subtle and 
more deadly, a war that can deprive us of every means of 
future resistance, and insure success to some future inva- 
sion. It is that warfare, which, two years after victory, has 
left us worse than a conquered nation ; without a single 
piece of coined money in the purse of any individual. If we 
hesitate now, we deserve our adversary's scorn ; if we will 
be deceived, why should he not deceive us ; if we are con- 
tent to be undone, why should he feel remorse; if we have 
no remedy, we are to be pitied and not blamed ; if we have, 
and want courage to apply it, we are to be blamed, but 
not pitied. If we do not make a stand upon this ground, 
we need defend no other post j their interest, supported by 
the government, by their laws, by public patronage, and 
wealthy combinations, by export duties, and bounties on 
exportation, will prevail against our's, unsupported and ne- 
glected, and our interest will be more than ^ndangered^ m 

3 



u 

this syslemalic eohlesi, if one gives all the blows, and the 
otjber passively receives them. 

Nor is it a principle of English origin merely to en- 
courage and protect domestic arts. All wise states have 
acted on it. In ancient Rome, though artificers were of 
the class of slaves, they were greatly favored. They had 
their own temples, chose their own patrons to defend their 
causes, and were exempt from personal services to the 
state. They were incorporated into colleges or compa- 
nies, had their own tutelary gods, and when their labours 
were ended, they hung up their tools with ceremonial rites, 
as votive offerings ; and all this for their utility alone, hav- 
ing to fear no hostile competition. 

Besides, it is not against an armed force we are now 
to array ourselves, nor against legitimate or liberal com- 
petition, but against concealed hostility, and practices full 
of dishonour. Whether these proceed from the govern- 
ment, or the people, or from an interested class, they will 
not be less ruinous to us, unless we oppose them by means 
prompt, vigorous, and effective. If in ordinary times such 
conspiracy against our prosperity was dangerous, how 
animated must it now become, when they have no other 
way left of destroying us, no other market wherein to 
vend their goods ; when they are willing to incwr such loss 
for the purpose of stifling in the cradle that resource of 
which they can see the advantage to us, though we our- 
selves be blind to it. And we have too many proofs that 
neither people nor government think it below their dignity, 
nor above their ability, to do by us as by every other na- 
tion whose industry stands in the way of their monopoly, 
by sea or land. 

Will a nation, then, which spends millions to destroy 
the manufactures of other nations, and find markets for 
her own, hesitate to expend a few millions to crush 
the manufactures of one whom she honors with the name 



19 

©f rival ? Her restraints on our growing prosperity and na- 
tional industry, and on the migration of arts and artisans 
to our shores, led to resistance; that resistance to inde- 
pendence ; and that independence to our present greatness. 
The second war she waged against us gave us manufac- 
tures ; against these she is now waging the third war, and 
if she can succeed in this third war, she calculates rightly, 
upon our ruin and subjection. 

It may be well to state a few instances of the operation 
of the policy we have denounced, that the well-wishers of 
this country may the better understand what passes daily 
before their eyes. 

At an epoch when the Spanish government seemed to 
rouse itself a little from its usual torpor, and to occupy it- 
self with the interests of the country, a manufactory of su- 
perfine woollen hats was established at the Escurial, under 
its special protection. Great sums were advanced by en- 
lightened and public spirited individuals, and the govern- 
ment took a large share in the enterprise. But the Lon- 
don hatters determined to put down so portentous an inno- 
vation. Immense quantities of the finest beavers were pro- 
fusely scattered over all Spain, with orders to sell them 
uniformly at one half of the Spanish price. The conse- 
quences may be easily foreseen. The Spanish manufac- 
tures were ruined, the government was too timid to main- 
tain the contest, and too economical to support a national 
branch of industry. The fabric of the Escurial was given 
up^ and the ensuing year the English, by raising their 
prices, repaired the momentary and voluntary loss they 
had sustained — a proof at least of their skilful policy. 

Similar practices were played off against France during 
the whole course of the war, and had more effect in reduc- 
ing her to her present calamitous situation, than the valor 
of the invincibles, or the genius of Wellington. When 
other means failed to force a market, agents were sent to 



20 

establish manufactures, not for the purpose of fabricaling 
French goods, but to cloak the introduction of British : and 
though pains of death were denounced against the smug- 
glers, corruption found its way, and opened itself a chan- 
nel. 

History will yet bring to light from what mine those 
riches sprang, that could corrupt ministers and generals, 
and determine the fate of a nation ; and mark it well, mis- 
take it not, remember it for ever, it was British Manufac- 
tures. It was their subtle poison that first polluted those 
hearts, that having once proved false to their country's good, 
could never more be true to any thing ; for how should ho- 
nour outlive honesty ? Oh America I what a beacon for 
your guidance, what a lesson for your statesmen and your 
people. 

There is living testimony within the reach of this society, 
that, in certain British manufactories, the French marks 
were put upon their goods without any affectation of con- 
cealment, and the purpose openly avowed, as well as the 
connexion that subsisted between the real manufacture in 
Britain, and the fictitious one in France. 

And, at the commencement of our woollen manufactures, 
for the purpose of degrading our fabrics, goods of the 
worst quality, but highly finished to the eye, were sent to 
this city from England, marked " Humphrey's Ville," that 
they might, by passing for the productions of that manu- 
factory, injure its well-merited reputatio.n. 

It is well known to many, that, during the late war, 
British goods were smuggled into this country, and exposed 
to sale as American, Spanish, and Portuguese ; it is 
quite of course, too, for their agents who have come out 
here since the war, in speaking of the glutting of the Euro- 
pean markets, to say, that the speculation was not so un- 
viis,^ as unfortunate, for, if the gpvernment and people had 



21 

not taken the alarm, they should have desti'oyed their 
manufactures, and afterwards had their own price. 

In the beginning of the year 1792, when the report of 
General Hamilton, then secretary of the Treasury, made 
by orders of the House of Representatives, was published 
in England, it created such alarm, that meetings were 
called in the manufacturing towns, and Manchester alone, 
at a single meeting, subscribed 50,000 pounds sterling, to- 
wards a fund to be vested in English goods, and shipped to 
this country for the purpose of glutting our market, and 
blasting the hopes of our manufactures in the bud. 

The lucrative speculations which the wars of Europe 
gave rise to, the examples of rapid fortunes made by 
foreign commerce, and the temporary advantages of our 
neutral state amongst so many powers, eager for each 
other's destruction, prevailed over the prophetic wisdom of 
that illustrious statesman ; but things being now restored 
to their natural order, that important document which has 
been almost smothered in oblivion, and is of all his works 
that which has been least noticed or appreciated, must now 
be brought into full view. And we call upon the friends 
of American independence, upon those who raised to his 
memory a humble monument suited to be the record of 
private affection, and to number his days, to join with us 
in raising'this fallen column of his true renown. 

And before we despatch this important head of " le^aving 
manufactures to themselves," we must advert to that phe- 
nomenon of art, the steam-boat, that proudest specimen of 
American manufacture. Had it been left to itself there 
would have been lost to the human race an inestimable 
benefit; and to this republic the proudest monument of its 
glory. It came forth with throes and pangs of travail 
like a giant's birth ; and had not an enlightened legislature 
fostered its inventor with encouragement and hope, and 
renewed from time to time the period limited for its pro- 



22 

ductian, it would not now be seen stemming the current 
of our magnificent rivers, glittering like the enchanted gal- 
ley on the tide of fate, topping the ocean's wave, or gliding 
like the pride of swans upon the lake. 

6th. We come now to the last head of our argument, 
^ the public revenue." And here we would remove that 
error which supposes that foreign importations pay the 
revenue to government. It is not so ! they are barely 
the medium through which the government collects the 
revenue from the private purses of the private citizens. 
It is the citizen, and not the ship, that pays. It is the 
citizen, and not the foreign goods, that pay. It is the con- 
sumer, and not the importer. During the recent war, so 
far from supporting the revenue, these importations (too 
often carried on in partnership with treason) developed 
their characters, drained the country of its specie, and its 
bullion, and left the government in a situation too humilia- 
ting to be recollected without pain by any patriot. 

But, happily for this country, fortune has brought this evil 
to a period. And few will be so headstrong as not to 
acquiesce in the change of times and circumstances. 

it surely makes no diflerence to our citizens which 
way they pay the money that goes to support their govern- 
ment, and they can have no objection to pay it in the 
way most beneficial to their country, by raising it on the 
domestic manufactures. The necessity of a direct tax will 
be lessened, which will come in ease of the landed interest 
and of the merchant. 

Mr. Isaac Briggs, in his Statement to the Chairman of 
Commerce and Manufactures, has proved, by exact cal- 
culations, founded on a present Siud prospective view of our 
population, wants, produce, and the foreign markets, that 
if our agriculturists depend, in future, upon any other 
market than that which domestic manufactures will af- 
ford, that their produce will lie upon their hands, or they 



2,3 

must accept of whatever price the foreign merchant may 
be pleased to offer, for such portion as he will condescend 
to accept. For produce will no longer serve as payment 
where it is no longer wanted, and payment in specie will 
clearly be impossible. 

For the tables and calculations we refer to the 9th vo- 
lume of Niles' Weekly Register, where this valuable docu- 
ment will be found. 

As the public may not be aware of the great interest, 
even now in jeopardy, we will barely mention, upon good 
authority, that there were, at the peace, 600,000 spindles 
employed in the cotton factories alone, the value of each 
of which, with the appendages, averaged 80 dollars, em- 
bracing, in capital, above forty millions, besides the capi- 
tal employed in working the raw material, which amounted 
to twenty millions more; and the woollen factories, though of 
much more recent origin, a capital of about the same amount, 
all which appeared, from a report to the Representatives of 
the People of the United States, by the Committee of Com- 
merce and Manufactures of the last session, founded upon 
authentic data, furnished by the agents of the manufactu- 
ring interest, who were examined before separate com- 
mittees of senate and representatives. It has, moreover, 
been since ascertained, that preparations were made fsOT 
the extension of both branches, which would have aug- 
mented the capital employed in them respectively to a 
much greater amount. 

Let us now look back and see what this idol, foreign 
importation, was, and whether it is wiser to keep life ia 
our own manufactures, or to struggle unnaturally to revive 
that unprofitable traffick. 

It is a fact, which we assert on the authority of intelli- 
gent merchants, that the importing commerce has, in the 
two last years, (since peace has brought things to their na- 
^aral course,) diminished the mercantile capita] one-third. 



24 

and, if continued, will result in the total impoverishment 
of every class. But what in its best days did it do for us ? 
It corrupted our patriotism ; domineered over our opi- 
nions ; excited party spirit ; embarrassed the government, 
and aimed a mortal blow at our union and independence. 
It carried the views of fortune of many good citizens from 
their own, to a foreign land, and brought among us a host 
of mischievous agents, whose business was, by night and 
by day, to irritate the public mind, fester every sore, 
and warp the measures of the government to a foreign 
interest. Instead of furnishing money, the sinew of war^ 
it cut that sinew in the critical moment when its action 
was most wanted. Before a blow was struck on our 
part, it had stained our own waters with the blood of our 
countrymen ; taught the nations of the earth to disrespect 
us, placed six thousand of our kidnapped citizens in 
British prisons, and forced others to shed the blood of 
their fellows and kindred in battle; and now, at the 
end of two years from the cessation of the war which it 
induced, although victory crowned our arms, bankruptcy 
stares us in the face. Is it, then, upon this rope of sand 
that government can rely in the event of any future war ? 

Happily the frauds of the foreign merchants have brought 
conviction home to the knowledge and sensibilities of our 
importers. Our merchants have found out that their order 
is no sooner executed by the English merchant, than other 
cargoes, of the like kind and quality, invoiced at re- 
duced prices, are immediately shipped on their own ac- 
count. And the duties being as much less as the invoice is 
lower, the revenue is defrauded of so much, and these 
goods are then thrown upon the market at this reduced 
price ; added to which, the facilities afforded them by 
sales at auctions, (where die foreign merchant is exempt 
from license duty,) enable them to " glut our markets^' as 
their term is, to the ruin of the merchant and manufacturer, 



25 

and to the prejudice of the revenue. By all these means 
they reap the profits of smuggling without incurring any 
of its risks. 

Mr. Brougham, indeed, has flattered them, that though 
these enterprises are desperate as regards the continent of 
Europe, where the merchants will not pay, that the Ame^ 
rican merchants will pay ; and these practices of glutting 
and destroying may be safely adventured against them. 
Mr. Brougham could not have known that our merchants 
were already reeling under their balance-sheets of foreign 
commerce, uncertain whether the next assault of the un- 
steady element, on which they ride, may not send them 
to the abyss of ruin. 

It is no time for jealousies between farmer, merchant, 
and manufacturer; one common bond of interest and pa- 
triotism unites them now. Let the government take ad- 
vantage of this propitious crisis, stand firmly to its post 
and do its duty, as we trust it will ; confidence will soon 
revive, capital be vested, machines improved, competition 
will bring our own goods to market at a reasonable price, 
and prevent those exactions which some afiect to antici- 
pate on the exclusion of foreign manufactures. On the 
other hand, if the foreign importations are ever again re- 
lied on as the means of revenue, what can ensue but a re- 
petition of those vexatious embarrassments Vvhich our 
government experienced during the war, and which it cost 
the best blood of our country to surmount. 

If it clearly now appears, that Europe will not take from 
us the produce of our soil upon terms consistent with our 
interest, the natural remedy is to contract as far as possible 
our want of her productions. And if there be no other 
way to independence than that of manufacturing for our- 
selves, at least for our own consumption, it is hoped that 
the prejudice against home is not so strong in the mind of 
any American, but that it may be overcome. 

4 



26 

The encouragement, besides, of domestic manufactures 
will increase the capital of the country as the manufac- 
tured article exceeds the value of the first material ; some- 
times one hundred fold, without speaking of the saving of 
all extra charges of shipping and reshipping, increasing 
in proportion the value of the land, and easing the land- 
holder of his burden in supporting the expenses of the 
Government. It has been exultingly asserted by a great 
statistical writer in England, that one man in a factory 
maintains four soldiers, and one steam engine subsidizes 
three hundred German mercenaries. 

Having discussed the various topics of argument, as far 
as the time allotted to our labour would permit, we shall 
set forth the tides upon which we presume to solicit uni- 
versal co-operation. 

In the first place, we can safely affirm, that our society 
is not the diminutive offspring of selfish or party combina- 
tion, nor the foundling of accidental caprice. It is the le- 
gitimate birth of circumstance and occasion, and has burst 
forth into existence spontaneously and full grown, like the 
Goddess of Wisdom from the brain of the great progenitor^ 
for it is the child of mighty and irresistible necessity. 

Its object is to give to national industry the impulse 
it is susceptible of, by all the means within our power, and 
to endeavour tQ discover what helps it most needs. We 
must solicit the patronage of an enlightened public, and 
the protection of a wise government. We must rescue 
opinion from the dominion of prejudice, and enlist in our 
ranks genius, knowledge, and experience. Our activity 
must depend less on the feelings of private interest than 
the more exalted sentiment of love of country. But 
when individual interest is blended with the general good,. 
why should it not prosper ? — how can it but succeed ? 

We myst £iim at acquiring extensive knowledge of all 



27 

useful facts that have relation to our subject ; the power 
of generalizing \yill follow as of course. The artificer and 
philosopher must combine their efibrts, and theory walk 
by the side of practice. Useful knowledge will thus be ac- 
quired and disseminated, like rays converged to one focus, 
and reflected wherever their application may be wanted* 
The head that conceives, will soon find the hand that can 
execute, and nothing of the stock of intellect will go to loss. 
Inventions already known will be improved, and their use 
rendered easy and familiar. All the powers of inquiry, 
experiment, and combination, will be in full activity. 
The embryo conception will not be chilled by neglect, but, 
cheered by timely attention, will exceed the hopes of the 
projector himself. If we have not a treasury to dispense 
pecuniary recompenses, yet, there are rewards more grate- 
ful to genius, because more worthy of its acceptance ; and 
the most animating of all rewards to a free and noble 
heart will be the civic crown. 

Our proceedings must be so squared with the public 
good as to be no more than echoes of the public wants and 
washes. Servile fashion, and all the baleful prejudices that 
dedicate to foreign productions the tribute of their devo- 
tion, must fly before the majesty of the public voice, and 
the pride of national character rise on the ruins of preju- 
dice. 

Let nothing, then, check our onward march, nor the vigour 
of our efforts. Let genius and patriotism, from whatever 
quarter of the earth, be naturalized amongst us, and nothing 
be exotic in this generous republic that blooms and bears 
good fruit. 

And we now respectfully invite our fellow-citizens 
throughout the union, to unite with us in this great national 
concern, to establish societies with as much promptitude 
as possible, and to correspond with us, and with each other. 
Such diversified and rapid cofnmunication will bring im- 



28 

portant truths to light, dispel prejudice, refute^ sophistry, 
excite patriotism, cherish industry, and, above all, give to 
public opinion that expansive swell that will harmonize 
with the rising tide of our country's prosperity. 

It is not to one class, nor to one interest, that we address 
ourselves, but to the whole and each respectively. 

We call on our manufacturing brethren, and artists of 
every description, to communicate directly, or through the 
medium of some affiliated society, all such facts or informa- 
tion as may be subservient to the prosperity of domestic 
manufactures in general, or of any in particular. 

And you, agriculturists, owners and possessors of the 
soil, the standing pillars of your nation's independence, we 
conjure you, for yourselves, and for your country, to second 
us by all your energies. Explore, with new activity, and 
determine, by new inquiries, the nature and productions of 
your estates, and the adjoining territories. Every view, 
statistical, economical, geological, or topographical, is con* 
nected with this great national concern. You may find 
that you have been unconsciously walking upon hidden 
treasures, richer than the mines of Golconda. The three 
kingdoms of nature may have been long tendering to your 
acceptance the willing tribute which you have heedlessly 
disregarded. Who can have so much interest as you in 
the opening of canals and roads, the increase of national in- 
dustry and capital, with all its ramifications, which must 
reach you like irrigating streams of living waters, and en- 
hance the value of your possessions ? The great improve- 
ments that must follow in the train of national industry, are 
too far beyond ordinary calculations to be readily conceiv- 
ed. You will have, not one, but a choice of markets for 
your produce, of which wars, blockades, or the casualties of 
foreign nations, cannot deprive you. You will have speedy 
returns of whatever you may ^vant, and your approxima- 
tion to the mart of exchange will put it in your power to 



29 

foe the comptrollers of your own fortunes/and the arbiters of 
your own concerns. Our southern agricultural brethren, 
in particular, would do well to reflect that Great Britain is 
now, and has been for some time, creating new sources for a 
supply of cotton, by encouraging its culture in India, on the 
Coromandel and Malabar coasts, Africa, Brazil, and other 
places; and will shortly render herself independent of any 
supply from this country, and probably prohibit the impor- 
tation of American cotton into her market. When this 
event, which is not far distant, shall take place, you will 
be destitute of a vent for your cotton, unless a market can 
be found in our own country, by the establishment of do- 
mestic manufactures. 

To you, merchants, now sinking by these foreign impor- 
tations to ruin and bankruptcy, we appeal j by your dearest 
interests, and those of your country, we conjure you to 
contribute all the power of your intelligence and enter- 
prise, and to aid in counteracting those frauds upon your- 
selves and the revenue, of which you, your fellow-citi- 
zens, and the government, are common victims, A new 
and unforeseen crisis has put an end to those delusions 
which heretofore arrayed agriculture and commerce against 
domestic manufactures. It is now demonstrated, that what- 
ever adds prosperity to either of these modes of industry 
is beneficial to them all. 

And of you, sons of science, who possess the rich trea- 
sures of cultivated intellect, and can teach their applica- 
tion to the useful arts of life, we claim the lights you can 
shed on this great subject. Too many of your former im- 
portant communications have been lost to the public, from 
the inauspicious times in which they appeared, and have 
perished like seed sown by the way side. We entreat you 
to come forth anew in the pride of intellectual vigour, to 
break the spell of ignorance, and emancipate the genius 
of your country. 



30 

You who redeemed your fellow citizens from the barVja- 
rian's yoke and foreign captivity, who, mingling the battle's 
thunder with the cataract's roar, made Niagara's falls the 
eternal record of the well-fought field ; and you, citizen 
soldiers, who re-echoed victory where Mississippi rolls her 
latest waves along — we invite you to participate in our 
civic triumphs. If your country's cause should call you 
forth hereafter, you will go girded with swords of native 
steel ; and the arms you wield will be committed to you 
by the hands of your affectionate countrymen. 

And you, fair daughters of Columbia, whose sway is 
most ascendant when the hearts of freemen do you homage, 
assert your dignity ; disdain the fashions of foreign climes ; 
let not the daughters of Belgium, Austria, or Russia, ex- 
ceed, in patriotism, the free-born fair ; let your dress be 
national ; let your ornaments be of your country's fabric, 
and exercise your independent taste in suiting the array of 
your toilet to your own climate and your own seasons. 
You do not vote in the counsels of your nation, but your 
empire is everywhere where man is civilized. Let the 
power of beauty add impulse to the springing fortunes of 
the land which you adorn; and let the charms of your per- 
sons be ever associated with your country's love. 

With this view of the past and present we might 
conclude ; but, may we not look forward with anticipated 
delight to the prospect that bursts upon our sense : not 
through the vista of a long perspective, but which our 
children may enjoy in all its splendour ; when a territory, 
vast as the European continent, shall pour its riches forth ; 
when the protecting shade of equal laws, and the misery 
of another hemisphere shall have increased our popula- 
tion to the measure of our wide domain ; when the genius 
of the republic, towering like the eagle on the Appa- 
lachian heights, shall, looking from the proud summit to 
either ocean's wave^ survey the wealth of every soil, the 



31 

fruit of every clime. Where the bear roams, and the wild- 
cat prowls, flocks and herds shall pasture, and the savage's 
dreary repair out-bloom the gardens of Hesperia. There 
citiesj towns, and villages, centres of intersecting orbits 
through which domestic commerce will revolve, shall rise 
and flourish. And whilst the plough shall trace the silent 
furrow, the mill shall turn, the anvil ring, and the merry 
shuttle dance. The exhaustless stores of mind and matter 
shall be this nation's treasury. Adventurous man, triumph- 
ing over the obstacles of nature, shall search the recesses of 
the stubborn mountain. The sounding tools, and the voice 
of human speech shall wake the echo in the vaulted space, 
where, from the beginning, silence and darkness reigned ; 
and the rich ore shall quit its hidden bed, and sparkle in 
the upper day. Innumerable communications, by land and 
by water, shall bear, in all directions, the native produce of 
the soil and of its industry. Majestic rivers, enriched by 
their tributary streams, shall waft on their smooth tide the 
treasures of teeming abundance. And those proud cars 
to which magic genius has yoked the discordant elements 
of fire and flood, shortening the distance of time and 
space, shall stem the mighty current. The immeasu- 
rable coasts, with all their bays and inlets, shall in- 
vite the mariner to commerce, or beckon him to shelter 
from the storm. Those inland seas, memorable by the 
victories of freemen, the classic scenes of future Muses, 
shall be studded with barks which national industry has 
set in motion; the white canvass swelling to the breeze, 
the ensign of freedom waving to the sky. One people, 
one tongue, one spirit, grappled by ten thousand relations 
of interest or affinity — what factious demagogue, what 
ambitious usurper, will then find a spot to insert the wedge 
to sever such a union ? A thousand heartstrings must be 
rent before the smallest member can be separated. 

Let the world, then, in arms, assail this great Republic, 



yBRARY OF CONGRESS ^j 

027 988 373 1 



n 



Committee 

of 

Correspondence. 



Like a proud promontory, whose base is in the deep, whose 
summit strikes the clouds ; the storms of fate may smite 
upon its breast, the fretful ocean surge upon its base ; it 
will remain unshaken, unimpaired — type of duration- 
emblem of eternity ! 

And who is he that is not proud of such a country— jeal- 
ous of its prosperity ? Who would be thought the subject 
of a king that could boast the title of citizen of this Re- 
public ? — countryman of Franklin and Fulton — child of 
Washington ! 

Signed, 

THOMAS MORRIS, 
SAMUEL L. MITCHILL, 
ARTHUR W MAGILL, 
WILLIAM SAMPSON, 
JONATHAN LiTTLE, 
THOMAS HERTTELL, 
JAMES ROBERTSON, 
THADDEUS B. WAKEMAN, 
ISAAC PIERSON, 
J. R. B. RODGERS, 
EDWARD P. LIVINGSTON, 

On Motion^ Resolved^ That the foregoing address be 
approved, and that the Corresponding Committee cause 
5,000 copies to be printed; and that they transmit a copy 
to the President of the United States, to each of the mem- 
bers of Congress and Heads of Departments of the General 
Government, and to the Governor and Members of the 
Legislature of the States respectively, 

DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, President. 

STEPHEN VAN RENSSELAER, First Vice-President. 

WILLIAM FEW, Second Vice-President. 

JOHN FERGUSON, Third Vice-President. 

DoMiNicK Lynch, Jun. ^ 

and > Secretaries. 

Peter H. Schenck, 3 

N, B. Communications to the Society will be addressed 
to any of the members of the Corresponding Committed. 




LIBRPRY OF CONGRESS 

illlll 



027 988 373 1 1^ 



